The magnitude 8.2 earthquake that struck off the northwest coast of Chile on Tuesday night, killing at least six, generated a tsunami that traveled clear across the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately, the tsunami's impacts outside of the coast of South America were minimal, unlike the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that left more than 230,000 dead, and the tsunami that took out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in 2011.

This animation from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is a near real-time animation for the tsunami from northern Chile. According to NOAA, it shows simulated tsunami wave propagation for 30 hours followed by an "energy map" showing the maximum open-ocean wave heights over that period.

Tsunamis can travel at speeds above 500 miles per hour, often at heights that are barely detectable in the open ocean except for areas covered by specially designed monitoring buoys. It is when tsunamis near the coast that they become most dangerous, since the waves pile up due to their interaction with the coastal plain, often resulting in a period of erratic seas and towering waves that can last for as long as an hour.

#Tsunami a few inches high arrived on #SoCal coasts today. Harbor currents expected. #cawx #laweather pic.twitter.com/buykP9mLlq

— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) April 2, 2014

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